As a conventional recorded medium reproducing apparatus having a recorded medium exchanger, a disk reproducing apparatus such as shown in FIG. 22 disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 4-38673 is known in which a stocker houses a plurality of carriers each capable of placing a disk thereon and is raised or lowered by stocker transport means to a height at which a desired carrier is pulled out by a tray. Namely, the stocker is moved by a distance corresponding to the number of shelves for housing carriers.
The tray is transported between a load position shown in FIGS. 22(a) and 22(b) and an eject position shown in FIG. 22(c). As shown in FIG. 22(a), the carrier having a desired disk placed thereon is pulled out on the tray at the load position, and the disk is clamped by clamping means to reproduce the disk as shown in FIG. 22(b).
As the tray with the carrier moves from the position shown in FIG. 22(a) to the position shown in FIG. 22(c), the carrier on the tray is exposed to the outside of the apparatus housing. In this state, the disk on the carrier is exchanged or a new disk is placed on the carrier. As the tray with the carrier moves from the position shown in FIG. 22(c) to the position shown in FIG. 22(a) and the carrier on the tray is moved back to the stocker, the disk can be exchanged or a new disk can be added to the apparatus. This disk reproducing apparatus is advantageous over a conventional disk reproducing apparatus with an exchanger in that a disk magazine is not used. The disk magazine is expensive, and if it is dismounted from the apparatus and placed at a different position, it takes some time to locate this disk magazine. This is inconvenient to use.
However, this disk reproducing apparatus disclosed in the above-described Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 4-38673 has only one means for pulling a carrier out of the stocker. Therefore, a disk in the stocker cannot be exchanged during the reproduction when the carrier is at the position of reproducing means.
The invention has been made under the above circumstances. It is an object of the present invention to provide a recorded medium reproducing apparatus capable of exchanging a recorded medium in a stocker even during the reproduction of another recorded medium.
A recorded medium reproducing apparatus of this invention comprises: a stocker capable of accommodating a plurality of recorded media; reproducing means for reproducing a recorded medium; first transport means for transporting the recorded medium between the inside of the stocker and the outside of an apparatus housing; second transport means for transporting the recorded medium between the inside of the stocker and a reproduction position; positioning means for determining a relative position between the recorded medium in the stocker and the first or second transport means; and driving means for driving the positioning means stepwise at a width corresponding to a pitch between adjacent recorded media accommodated in the stocker, wherein the first and second transport means are displaced each other relative to the stocker and the driving means is so arranged that the driving means can drive the positioning means by a stroke of stages larger than the number of stages of the stocker in which recorded media are accommodated.
According to the recorded medium reproducing apparatus of this invention, even while the second transport means transports the recorded medium from the stocker to the recorded medium reproducing means and the recorded medium is reproduced, a desired recorded medium can be aligned in position with the first transport means by the positioning means and the desired recorded medium can be transported to the outside of an apparatus housing. Therefore, recording media can be exchanged.
The first and second transport means are displaced each other relative to the stocker. Therefore, even while the second transport means engages with a recorded medium in the stocker, the first transport means can engage with another recorded medium without being interrupted by the second transport means.
Although the first and second transport means are displaced each other relative to the stocker, the driving means is so arranged that the driving means can drive the positioning means by a stroke of stages larger than the number of stages of the stocker in which recorded media are accommodated. Therefore, desired recording media in the stocker can be aligned in position with the first and second transport means.